20060731

This glory hole is fed by overflow water at Lake Berryessa, west of Woodland, CA. &nbsp There is something to be said about a possible primal fear of black holes and similar phenomena, as some children find watching the water going into this glory hole very disturbing. &nbsp A University of California at Davis graduate student fell into this glory hole in the mid-1990's.

Short movie clip dramatizing the behavior of the black hole and companion star that comprise "microquasar" GRO J1655-40. &nbsp The "garbage disposal effect" is where material will fly up and out of the drain of a garbage disposal while operating, and is a crude analog of the bipolar jets emitted by the black hole.

Short movie clip dramatizing the type Ia supernova documented by Tycho Brahe in 1572. &nbsp A white dwarf of degenerate carbon steals hydrogen from its companion star. &nbsp When enough material has accumulated on the surface of the white dwarf, it undergoes runaway fusion, annihilating itself, and freeing its companion to roam the Milky Way alone.

20060720

Basketball represents the imploding core, and the golf ball represents the diffuse outer layers. &nbsp The core implodes during neutronization, and then slightly rebounds outwards, colliding with the outer layers as they begin to fall inwards, resulting in the outer layers rebounding outwards at a much faster speed. &nbsp Watch frame-by-frame as the basketball falls down, bounces upwards as it hits the golf ball as it is still falling downwards, resulting in the golf ball flying upwards.

20060719

Depending on whether the convex or concave side of the spoon is viewed (and for the concave side, whether the object is inside of or outside of the focal point), an upright virtual image or an inverted real image is seen.